Normal never lasts forever
by Preston101
Summary: All either of them want is a bit of normality, but that's never possible.


**A/N - I don't own them, if I did it would be the best day of my life :D**

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><p>It had seemed for the first time in their entire relationship that Mystic Falls wasn't about to come under siege from some new kind of threat or danger. This meant that for the first time in their entire relationship, Stefan and Elena got to be just a normal couple.<p>

Friday night, Elena bade goodnight to Jenna and Alaric at half eleven. Twelve minutes later, Stefan was climbing in her bedroom window. Much later that night, said boyfriend and said aunt had an altercation in the hallway, Jenna in her knickers and bra, Stefan in his boxers. Both stood frozen, both opened mouths to try and speak.  
>"I won't ask if we never speak of this again," Jenna proposed and Stefan nodded in reply.<br>"Great idea," Then he went down stairs to get a cup and Jenna went to the bathroom.

Saturday morning Jenna and Stefan acted like they hadn't seen each other; Elena knew them both too well but knew better not to ask. After that, they had gone to the movies and had spent half of it in the back row simply making out. That was until Stefan pointed out that you could see the reflection of the film in the bald patch of the guy in front. They got thrown out ten minutes later because Elena couldn't breathe.

Saturday afternoon, both Jenna and Jeremy were out, the house was empty. They spent the rest of the day alone in Elena's bed, just them. Apart from when Stefan ran down stairs at vampire speed for about thirty seconds to grab all the chips, chocolate and general junk food Elena had in her house before retreating back to their sanctuary with the horde.

Saturday night, well it was pretty much a repeat of the afternoon except substitute the chips for Elena showing off her skills of preparing microwave meals.

Sunday morning, Stefan apologized for failing to use his culinary skills the day before and made Elena a big enough breakfast to feed the house, which it did when the smell of waffles and bacon brought the Gilbert household down from their respective bedrooms. After breakfast, they showered together, conserving water as they did so and then went for a walk for over two hours where they just talked about anything and everything and Stefan once more had Elena crying with his jokes and stories.

Sunday afternoon, they met everyone in the grill and to everyone's astonishment, Elena beat Stefan at Pool. Then Elena nearly died when she discovered that her boyfriend had never tried Heinz Burger Sauce, when he tried some with Elena's burger, he fell in love for the second time in a year.

Sunday night was spent once more fooling around in Elena's bed because her family were once more out and she eventually got the story of his and Jenna's midnight meeting out of him and she laughed so hard she cried into her pillow, while he lay there arms crossed over his chest refusing to talk to her when she'd gain composure the look at him and start all over again.

Elena hadn't felt this contented and happy in months. Stefan hadn't felt this happy and contented in 162 years. Because this weekend had been normal and they loved normal.

When she woke in the early hours of Monday morning, she rolled over expecting to cuddle up to her boyfriend; instead she found a note and a cold pillow. The note said he loved her and to apologize for borrowing the burger sauce, he'd replace it tomorrow.

Monday morning, she awoke at six to her alarm clock and to a near heart attack when she realised she hadn't written her English essay on Hamlet. Seizing her laptop, she opened word only to discover it was already completed, where he found the time to even start it, she'd never know.

Smiling to herself, she climbed out of bed to go to the shower, laughing once more at the image of her Aunt and boyfriend meeting each other in a midnight rendezvous in their underwear.

Yep, she loved normal, little did she know normal wasn't about to last.  
>She had no idea that Stefan's ring lay on the floor and still had no idea when she left for school.<p>

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><p>When she didn't see him before school, she found it slightly odd, but he must have been late. When she waited for him outside of his home room but he wasn't there, it was strange but he must have been sent to deliver a message. When he wasn't in English, Elena threw a screwed up piece of paper at Casey Wyman's back and discovered he'd never turned up; it was uncharacteristic but nothing to be scared of.<p>

She was late to Maths because she was trying to ring him, but it went straight to voicemail, she tried the landline (even though no one ever answered it and it wasn't until a few weeks ago that she even realised they had a landline) and tried him again, but nothing. Swallowing her slight worry, she rationalised he probably overslept or couldn't be bothered, any how he'd turned off his phone and he only did it with good reason.

Elena remembered when he'd crept in through her bedroom window on her Mom's birthday, wordlessly leant over to switch off her phone and his, placed them on the dresser. He slipped into the sheets beside her as her face sought sanctuary in the crook of his neck and wept whilst he cuddled her closely, shushed her and rubbed her back. He always turned his phone off if he didn't want to be disturbed.  
>He'd ring if there were trouble.<p>

When Elena got home to dump her stuff, she found it. Tucked between one of her floorboards the stone glistening in the sunlight she picked it up and smiled thinking of where it would have slipped off his finger as he would have slept naked in her bed with herself attached to him, then it dawned on her it was sunny.

Elena had never driven so fast in her life. Not even bothering to knock at the front door of the boarding house, she flew up the stairs not even processing the fact that every curtain, blind and drape was open.

"Stefan?" Elena called desperately as she ran through the foyer, up the stairs, past Damon's bedroom, around the corner, into another corridor, then up the final flight of stairs to his bedroom. "Stefan?" When no one answered, she felt physically sick and pictured Stefan's waxy corpse led on the floor, then she remembered, when vampires go into sunlight they combust, the mere thought made her blood run cold.

"Stefan?" She called again finally reaching the door. Flinging it open, she found that his balcony door was wide open, his curtains were tied back, windows were open, blinds billowing in the afternoon breeze, the entire room cast in the sunlight of Mystic Falls afternoon. "Stefan?" She tried once more casting the room with a sweeping glance as she began to feel positively sick.

"Elena," Her name came from the only shadow in the room.  
>"Oh my God," She uttered, hurrying around the room, she drew every curtain over the window and shut the balcony before hurrying to her lover's side where he sat hunched in the corner behind his desk, both relief and desperation flooding through her.<p>

"Oh, Stefan," Elena murmured, sitting beside him and gently stroking the nape of his neck, she slid his ring back onto his fore finger as she knelt next to him and rubbed his back gently, petrified of hurting him, she kissed the side of his head whilst whispering soothing words into his ear and wiping his hair away from his face which was drenched in sweat.

She dreaded how long he had been sat there because there hadn't been enough room within the shadows. The blisters and burns that covered the right hand side of his body more than showed that.  
>"You're OK, it's over now, I'm here," She promised, carefully positioning herself so that she shielded him from the light and cast him into complete shadow.<p>

Tenderly, Elena wrapping her arms around him before using her cuff to wipe his face dry, careful to avoid the burnt skin, which although it was healing slowly, would take a good ten minutes to heal properly.

"Are you OK?" She asked, cupping his head in her hands and he nodded slowly. "I'm so sorry, I should have found it this morning," He shook his head.  
>"It's not your fault," he replied groggily as he shakily tried to pull himself to his feet using his desk and his girlfriend's hand as leverage to wade the few steps towards his bed before collapsing onto it.<br>"Stef, what the hell happened?" Elena asked, gently as she reached to pull his t-shirt off his body. "Why were your curtains opened? Why didn't you ring?"

Stefan complied, wincing slightly, showing even worse burns across his side. "Damon didn't really appreciate that it wasn't funny," He shrugged, Elena had been getting him a clean shirt and tossed the one he had been wearing into his laundry basket when she span round, jaw set, eyes burning.  
>"He did what?" She thundered, "He left you in a sunlit room without your ring? He opened your curtains so you'd be in a sunlit room without your ring?"<p>

Stefan shook his head. "He thought you'd find it before school," he replied, trying once more to stand but Elena ushered him back down onto the bed. "It wasn't his fault,"  
>"But I didn't find it, Stefan," She retorted, furiously. "If I hadn't found it, he'd have come home to find a pile of ashes for a brother,"<p>

As she pulled the white t-shirt over his head, he winced once more as it scraped across the burns.  
>"Sorry, honey," She whispered, her anger quickly seeping away as she feared she hurt him, gently rubbing his back in small circles as he sighed to the floor. He then looked up at her.<br>"Thank you," he replied, smiling at her, reaching with his left arm to pull her into a gentle hug.

She melted into him, head colliding soundly with his chest as she felt his heart beat softly. The beating was a lot slower than usual, which seemed to be impossible because according to Stefan, vampire's hearts beat five times slower than humans at the best of times.  
>"Can I get you anything? Do you have any blood?" She asked, sitting up, carefully rubbing his neck. Stefan shook his head.<p>

"Just stay with me," He replied and they both lay down on his bed wordlessly. Elena enveloped him in her arms, this time with his head pressed to her chest as he listened to her heart beat. He'd fallen asleep within minutes to the gentle stroking of Elena's fingers threading through his hair.

She watched painfully as each blister, burn and scorch slowly disappeared from his skin and half an hour later, he looked as though nothing had happened and the only thing out of the ordinary was the top of his hair wet from Elena's tears as she went through the thought of losing him. It was incomprehensible and she couldn't begin to think how she function without him by her side.

Early that evening, Stefan had jumped into the shower before they went and got take out and Elena had gone downstairs to grab him a bottle of animal blood from the fridge she heard the front door open as Damon entered the boarding house.

She watched in silent rage as he staggered through the threshold obviously not exactly sober. When she placed the bottle onto the side, she decided that he needed shocking into a conscience of what he did to his brother.

"Why haven't you answered your phone?" She asked quietly, surprised at how genuine her voice sounded.  
>"I left it," he answered, gesturing drunkenly at the clock when in actuality she'd left it in the kitchen, like her dad used to say, she had eyes of an eagle.<br>"Have you seen, Stefan?" She asked, desperately – seriously she should have been an actress. "I've rung him and rung him but no one's heard from him,"

Damon looked at her in confusion, before a look of panic suddenly crossed his face, one that sobered him up immediately. "What do you mean?" He demanded, looking petrified. "What do you mean, no one's heard from him?"  
>"I mean he's gone, his car's here, did he say where he was going? Oh and I think his fire's leaking or something ash has leaked all over the floor," He stopped, staring at her open mouthed, looking as though he was about to keel over.<p>

She didn't even give him a chance to speak before she'd grabbed the telephone directory; yep they had a telephone directory too, and slammed it into the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.  
>"YOU STUPID FUCKING DICK!" She exclaimed, continually hitting him with it as he tried to defend himself by shielding his head with his hands. "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM, YOU FREAKING MANIAC!" She slammed it into the side of his head one last time before throwing it at his chest.<p>

Damon was winded and still shocked.

"He was hiding in the last couple of inches of shadow when I found him at half past three, five hours after you'd left him." She was shaking with anger as he pulled himself to his feet, leaning against the side table for support. "Half an hour later and I'd have come to find a pile of ashes, his body was so covered in burns and blisters that he could barely move,"

"I thought you'd find the ring and bring it over before school," He stated, not looking Elena in the eye as she turned to pick up the bottle of blood.  
>"Yeah well I didn't and we're damn well lucky that I found it when I did because if I hadn't he would be dead right now,"<p>

"Is he alright?" Damon asked, raising his gaze.  
>"He's fine," She answered stonily, turning and making her way up the stairs.<br>"Tell him I'm sorry, Elena," He said, clutching his head slightly. "Because I'm sorry, if I'd known,"  
>"Tell someone who cares, Damon, cos I'm sick of your games," Elena snapped, turning to face her boyfriend's brother. "You know you're lucky he didn't die tonight, because he wouldn't have been the only Salvatore to die if he had done," With that she turned and disappeared up the stairs.<p> 


End file.
